The winners of the Campbell and Sturgeon Awards have been announced. Both are juried awards, with the Campbell being presented for the Best SF Novel and the Sturgeon for Best Short Story. The presentation was held during the Campbell Conference at Lawrence, Kansas.

NASA launched the Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-135, its final mission, and the final mission of the 30 year long shuttle program at 11:29 ET. The mission was delayed with an unexpected hold at T-31 seconds when an error indicated that the Gaseous Oxygen Vent Arm had not fully retracted. Visual examination showed the error was a computer glitch and the countdown continued. Originally, Atlantis was supposed to have flown its last mission in May, 2010, but the current mission was added on October 11, 2010. The first shuttle launch, of Columbia, occurred on April 12, 1981.

Aspen Mountain Press has announced the launch of Aura Speculative Fiction, a digital book publisher scheduled to publish its first books on October 1. Submissions are currently open. Peg Robinson has been named Managing Editor of the line.

The nominees for the 2010 Endeavour Awards, to be presented at OryCon 33 for fiction written by Pacific Northwest authors, have been announced. The award includes a grant of $1,000. This year’s panel of judges includes John Joseph Adams, Bud Sparhawk, and Jo Walton.

Actor Gordon Tootoosis (b. 1941) died on July 5. Born in Saskatchewan, Tootoosis was a Cree Indian who was active in First Nation issues. He appeared in numerous films and television shows, including genre works Smallville, The X-Files, Mr. Soul, and Let There Be Light. He may be most famous for his role in Legends of the Fall. He also portrayed Ed’s father in an episode of Northern Exposure.

The nominees for the Harvey Awards, presented at the Baltimore Comic Con have been announced. The awards will be given out at a banquet on August 20. The Harvey Awards recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art and are named for Harvey Kurtzmann.

The winners of the 2010 Prometheus Awards have been announced by the Libertarian Futurist Society. The Prometheus Awards are given to honor excellence in libertarian science fiction. The awards will be presented at Renovation in August.

After a write-in bid for Granzella’s Inn in WintersWilliams, CA received one more vote that the Portland bid for Westercon 66, the decision of where to hold the Westercon was moved to the Business Meeting, where a 3/4 majority needed to agree on a location. In addition to the Portland bid and the Winters bid, a bid for Utah that was planned for Westercon 67 made a presentation to move up a year and a bid for Maui was also heard. None of the bids met the required threshold and a vote to declare deadlock also failed. On a motion to reconsider the Winters bid, it passed with a vote of 93-27. The con, which still needs to find a location, but likely will be in Sacramento, will be chaired by Kevin Roche and Andrew Trembley.